Establishing rapport
Helping a child is an important element of a parent’s role. Parents are challenged to nurture a child as they grow up. A parent should accept that a child has a unique individuality or characteristic that will remain consistent. A parent may understand their child by watching them sleep, eat, or play. While watching the children, it is important for the parent to maintain communication between them. Communicating with children will create a relationship and partnership, which works best between them.
Therefore, a parent should consider the best advice on how to guide their children. During my interview with the parents of Nisha, I focused on communicating with the child to create a comfortable environment. This encourages openness between the parent and the child. I conducted the interview with the parent through a consultative relationship that allowed them to open up about their child. The interview session quelled all the barriers to good communication such as educational level, competing responsibilities, other family members at home, and cultural beliefs associated with parental participation in children’s educational growth.
Background
In the narrative, the identified child was from a middle-income household and had no sibling. The parents were both attorney’s in respectable firms across Nevada. The family only had one child, named Nisha. The parents divulged information about Nisha’s medial background, affirming that they had questioned doctors concerning the treatment of the frequent headaches. The parent’s were right to worry because it gave them the opportunity to learn about the child’s health.
After several tests, the doctor reassured them that the child was fine. Nisha has no known illness and shows significant development in language, and motor skills. In the parent’s opinion, it is important to inquire about the behavioral problems of a child. When a parent takes a child to a specialist, it is their opportunity to question the specialist about any diseases affecting a child. Parent must proceed to learn about everything facing a child to find out whether a problem is serious or not. Similarly, it is important for the parent to address the many challenges causing the child’s disease. It is good to tell the changes between normal behavioral changes and those of conditions that are more critical.
Child social group experience
Most of time children spend in day care is linked with negative results in their social progress. The hours they spend in day care during an early age is connected with social capability and cooperation. It is true that the extent of social interaction between children defines the characteristics they pick up as they grow. The progress shapes young children’s aptitude and their interaction with others. An environment of collaborative experience is important to assess the impact of social exposure to the communicative agents of children.
As the interview progressed, I gave the child an interactive game to play and asked her to organize a verbal communicative based on her beliefs concerning the interlocutor. I analyzed the communicative adjustments and noted that the period before children begin school has a significant impact of their children and familial social environment. The results show that social interaction at tender ages affects the beliefs of children and their behavior in communication.
Family-Based Assessment (Involvement/Needs)
Families are able to participate in activities such as technology, literacy, parenting, basic math, or nutrition classes. A typical day at the school would be a session where teachers meet up with families to get the opportunity to interact together. The classes are an opportunity for students to engage their parents in taking on tasks together as a team. The children tend to be more comfortable in environments where their parents are present, this is an opportunity to bond strongly and to recognize that parents appreciate their efforts.
Class activities that parents undertake with their students boost their confidence and open them to speak up. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in other activities as standalone projects, to create a healthy environment where students try to outdo the other, just to impress their parents. In instances where parents and children take on tasks together, the children will be given the opportunity to lead.
The opportunity to work on the tasks together will motivate the children to come up with innovative ideas. This is also the opportunity for teachers to know the extent of family involvement with their children when they leave school. This is evident in the display of all that they learnt at home. Where a class exercise involves the whole family, the siblings are to take the lead, while students watch from a distance.
Studies show that teacher outreach to families has a positive impact on the performance of students. These outreach programs include one-on-one meetings with families, keeping the teacher informed about a subject, or letting students carry learning assessments home. Parenting workshops are important avenues for linking the reading comprehension of students with their math skills. Such partnership programs have a huge impact on school learning.
Schools that involve families in the school environment foster collaborative communication between all stakeholders. These schools are able to embrace partnership philosophies and to address the needs of each student effectively. School programs involving parents give them the opportunity to extend the knowledge of families about the workings of the educational system. Teachers have an opportunity to help their students learn accountably. Research shows that families can positively affect the outcomes of students. Students who involve parents in their learning earn high grades, pass classes, attend schools regularly, socialize better, and often graduate to post secondary education. With families supporting the learning of children, students will find their ways more prosperous and meaningful.
Environment
The environment selected for this assignment is an internal and external play area. I observed the child in two of the settings using various observational techniques. The running record is significant to assessing the developmental behaviors and skills, the available knowledge, and the disposition of the child to learning. Leaning in the two areas occurred using an outdoor slide with a tricycle and an indoor activity of cooking. I watched Nisha climb an outdoor ladder with her fingers wrapped on each side of the ladder as she lifted up each leg after the other to make steps. She alternated legs on each step while moving her hands more than two times. Nisha climbed to the top of each slide, before releasing her grasp to slide down again. At the end of the slide, she jumped to the ground and landed on her feet.
The significant developmental behaviors and skills noted from the outdoor play include endurance and muscle strength, balancing skills, coordination of the eye with the hand and the foot, the management of projectiles such as steadily landing on both feet, and development of non-locomotor skills. Nisha was able to climb up the ladder without assistance as she firmly gripped the rail bars of the slide. The child slid on the slide unsupported before jumping with both feet together. Nish’s approach to the ladder was the same for each time of the day. She called on to her friends to play with her on and kept counting out numbers to her friends as she went up the ladder. She continued counting out numbers even when it was not her turn to climb on. She also played with her friends on the slides.
Next, I assessed the child’s knowledge and realized that it was wide and varied. The child talked about cooking several types of meals. She preferred cooking vegetables and meat and used the skills of washing ingredients effectively. The child had knowledge of cooking facilities such as the frying pan. Nisha is skilled in knowledge about the environment and confident of her abilities in the kitchen. She is also curious to know how she can prepare dishes such as noodles. She is cooperative in everything spoken to her and acknowledges when she is corrected of a wrong. She remains open to learning and embraces new ideas comfortably.
Last, Nisha is enthusiastic to learn about the role of each ingredient in the kitchen environment, and asks questions relentlessly. Both the indoor and outdoor work well for Nisha, as both shows her tremendous development since childhood. The playing environment is good as she shows her developmental growth in several aspects of cognition and learning.
I have come to learn that no child should be an exception when exhibiting normal behaviors. A parent should always talk to a child, and try to understand a child’s perspective using less verbal cues. For the mature, verbal cues are important because it is the main method through, which a child understands. The most important thing for children is that parents try understanding the feelings of their children. A parent should stay closest to a child emotionally to enable the child open up. The parent is the first teacher of children, and when a child wants something, he or she runs quickly to the parent.
The parent should enjoy talking with a child every time while engaging them in little tasks that they can take up as they grow. The parent should try to communicate emotionally, and talk about what they all see. The parent should always use actions by singing, dancing, making noise, and trying to act silly things that make children happy. The parent should not be shy, but should help children by creating a fun and loving environment. The parent should comment on what a child is doing, and laugh at the fun they make.
Screening
Several screening instruments are available as this study considers the ages and stages questionnaire (ASQ) for its applicability in a wide range of settings. The ASQ screening system augurs well with the needs of many households. ASQ embodies clear drawings and simple directions that assists parents to locate child’s skills easily. Some of the skills that ASQ easily identifies and promotes include social traits, language skills, gross motor capacities, and problem solving abilities.
The ASQ screening system makes use of copy-able forms bearing various items for specific age groups. Moreover, the ASQ screening system recognizes age ranges with special category of child visit-schedules. The ASQ screening system readily makes use of mass mail-outs and feedback mechanism with a prompt scorecard protocol to determine which kids require in-depth evaluation. Scorecard protocol also helps to determine the eligibility of such children for early intervention, appropriate corrective measures, or preschool services. The ASQ screening system offers greater capacity to monitor children’s development, in so doing caregivers can discern children at risk or those with disabilities or delays to recommend them for referrals.
Within the ASQ screening system, a child’s strengths are varied. However, it is important to note that instruments used in early childhood screening initiatives do not necessarily confirm a developmental delay. Neither do screening instruments establish eligibility of such kids nor do they necessitate preschool special education program. Moreover, these instruments do not allow the construal of diagnoses whenever a child is put on them.
Rather, they help to decipher any deviation from the norms of a child’s age. Upon the determination of a deviation from the norm, the need for an extensive formal evaluation may proceed. Families may assist themselves to these evaluations programs at no or subsidized cost through special programs. However, where parents have to pay for the services, families might find the services a bit expensive prompting many needy children to miss-out-on these empowering practices. The experience makes it hard for children in latte life. Another problem is that the exercise demands appropriate use of standardized screening instruments.
This therefore means that the exercise requires skilled and experienced individuals in testing while expediting familiarity with test scores and the specific screening tool applied. I noted particularly that in the test score column the assessments had stringent requirements that demanded both the training and firsthand experience by the specialists working with them. Perhaps a most inspiring element in this exercise was that all the screening and assessment instruments were very effective. With a consistent delivery, the Ages & Stages Questionnaire screening kits administered well and the kids scored in accordance with systems instrumentality and function.
The ASQ screening kit provides decision support with the capacity to detect and address a wide range of children’s developmental concerns including behavioral and cognitive factors. ASQ promotes and embodies parent-provider collaboration as well as family-centered practices necessary in eliciting parents’ concerns and achieving rapid positive results in children with developmental concerns. Domains screen types within this kit include cognitive skills, expressive language, articulation, and receptive language. Also included in this matrix are fine and gross motor, behavior analysis, self-help, social-emotional moderation, and schooling.
Summary
Observations are meant to aid in understanding development objectives in children. This is more valuable than hearing or reading about children’s growth. Investigating physical locomotor skills, cognition and self-help development are better studied through observations. The brief account of development resulting from observations and screening assessments enables parents and teachers to know the development of each child.
Running records are essential for tracking the interests of each child and their progression with existing skills. The records help teachers plan developmentally appropriate curricular capable of building skills. Documenting the progress of students is valuable to supporting classroom assessments, making the recorded observations valuable in studying a child’s development.
From the current paper, it is evident that parents should communicate with their children using several strategies that ensure they get along. For instance, interactions between children and parents require that they meet at central points. Parents have to lower themselves to a child’s level in action and talk. Parent must always use a language that a child understands according to their age. Parents have to accept when a child may not want to pick up his or her toys without being told. They are to proceed with investigating the deeper underlying issues that could cause this phenomenon.
Parent should always try to communicate and accept questions from their children without replying them rudely during such conversations. This avoids the thought by children that their needs are not important. Children often prefer simple words, for example “no going out,” as opposed to “do not go outside, which are possible for a child to understand. The simplicity of language matters a lot in engaging children, within the school environment and at home.
As children grow up, parents should be more aware of the child’s social group and their consistent characters. This will form the foundations for communicating with the child during that age. In addition, parents should remain wary of the things that are familiar to the child and always try their best to make it work out for them. Children may request for something, or ask questions as they begin to talk. In essence, children with strong attachment bonds to their parents react well to the affection by sharing their ideas, and feelings.
Parents have to practice honesty as a virtue, because without it, the family cannot stay grounded. Honesty in building relationships with the family requires courage, because it shapes the future of the child, given the immense impact of nurture of children’s development.
A parent must try to understand every child, and pay attention to what each says. In the educational context, a professional should try to engage and build a friendly environment before sending out invitation to parents to visit the schools. You must spend some time in classrooms to get to know the students better and to get them warmed up to you. Using these building blocks as your foundation for a better relationship with children is worthwhile.
Recommendations
Several suggestions and activities could help improve the skills of children. First, teachers should constantly engage students and their parents in the school curriculum to reap the benefits of exposing parents to their children’s education. Teachers need to assess students within the school environment constantly to ensure that they are coping with the strategies that teachers implement.
Additionally, parents should be striving to be exposed to their student’s curricular to give them the best approaches of handling the children. In the present case study, the child needs additional evaluation to ascertain that her developmental progress with class discourse is right. It is evident that parents who are exposed to the academic life of students participate in shaping up the future of their children. The achieve this by studying their interactions across the home and school environment.
When talking with the parent concerning relationship issues and how they can be strengthened, teachers remain firmly grounded during the dialogue. Dialogue offers good opportunities for developing parent and teacher relationships. The effective nature of dialogue allows parents and teachers to build successful relationships. A parent should communicate with the teacher about the issues on how, a child progresses in class.
Dwelling on the events surrounding how students spend their time both at home and within the school environment are important. In early ages, children try to develop large and rich words, not for talking only, but to help them extend good achievement in their life.
Where parents and teachers clash over discussions will never miss, making good relationships a professional prerequisite for the good development of children. The issues triggering the acts range from poor scheduling of children’s time within the home environment that deters children from learning and practicing new skills. They may also includes failing to pick up children at a day’s end or forgetting to return forms.
Topping the issues is the progress of the child and their response about the signs of frustration or expected learning delays. Factors are wide ranging, but it is important that parents acknowledge the skills of their children and the value of communication on their performance. Teacher-parent, teacher-student, and parent-student relationships are important for the growth of children. Moreover, communication is the binding factor that would glue the three together. Similarly, parents should ask questions relating to how they can support their children who may have reading and comprehension disabilities. Tracing all aspects of the child’s development using screening tools, environment observations, and family-based assessments can illuminate of the development progress of a child.